PS I give up on uploading photos. Hopefully internet will be a little stronger later on this week. :)
Love,
Abby

Hello friends and family!

I guess by now you are realizing I am becoming less reliable for updating my blog. I usually complete my blog on Sunday if all else fails, but yesterday I spent my free time talking to my parents on the phone! :) I really enjoyed talking to them, and our hour went fast. I spent my Sunday at Lake Volta. The day started out with downpours much of the two hour journey there, and when we arrived it was sprinkling. I experienced the first moment I ever have wanted a jacket in Ghana. Yes, I wanted a jacket! We took a few pictures, hopped in our car, and then looked for a resturaunt. We ended up finding a resturaunt, but it didn’t serve fresh tilapia and banku, so after our Malta we boarded the ferry across the lake. We didn’t realize that the ferry, which included large trucks full of yams and other produce and travelers, was going to travel so slowly. There were a couple of times I felt the urge to jump in and swim to shore because it would have been faster. One and a half hours later, we reached the other side. By then the sun was coming out so we got off, bought some boiled peanuts, and got right back on the other direction. It was kind of refreshing, and I am pretty sure I sang as many songs as I could think of in my head on the way back. After arriving back at the port, we went and had peanut soup with rice balls, goat, and salmon—it was extremely tasty! Then we ended the day on the shore of Lake Volta in search of fresh tilapia. Since the presence of obrunees leads to an increase in price we stayed behind from the incoming boat. The sunset was beautiful, and since it was market day we had a huge crowd of people staring at us. So Gretchen and I just kind of sat there and tried to communicate a little, but soon found they did not speak a lot of Twi, but rather another tribal language. The day was very nice, and I snapped some gorgeous pictures on the shore.

Now for my week—maternity!!!!!!!!! I would like to say that I witnessed plenty of births, but I only witnessed one live birth! Apparently babies don’t like showing up in the morning shift which is from 8 to 2 pm. They all come in the evening and during the night! In spite of this, the birth of a baby boy on June 19 was truly remarkable to watch. Women in Ghana do not get pain killers of any sort during labor, and she wasn’t really yelling either. She just would lay on the table and snap her fingers. I talked to her a little, but I had no words of wisdom besides reassurance that today was the day she would get to meet her little baby. Besides sitting in the consultations with the midwives, I would often assist Dr. Anim or Dr. Opuni with scans. Once I had made sure they paid the cashier their 7 GHCED I would write them in the log book, and input their data into the ultrasound machine for the doctor. Besides the usual of looking at position of the baby, heartbeat, and position of the placenta, we would measure the femurs and crown to get an estimated date of delivery. Then we would try our best to get a good look between the two femurs at the sex of the baby. In one scan, we found TWO heartbeats!! J I was excited, but the poor lady was in her first pregnancy, and I felt a little sorrow thinking of all of the extra work this would mean for first. We also had a scan in which we no longer saw anything in the uterus. Thankfully, we don’t tell the women these things, but send them to the midwives to explain the results. As for consultation, I took a lot of blood pressures and weights. In one instance I had a lady with a BP of 180/100, which is not necessarily a good thing. I thought I was mistaken to be having such a high BP, but the other nurses confirmed it, and she was treated for her condition. It also was a shocker to witness some of the young pregnancy cases. In one case, a teacher brought in a 15 year old junior high student, and we found she was two months pregnant. There were also a few more girls in their late teens, and some in their second pregnancy! The sad thing is that the unwanted pregnancies are often terminated by the mothers using a concoction of African herbs. The midwives said a great deal of the problem is the youth are not educated well on sex in school. Since they are not taught about it in school, some girls enter into it blindly only to find themselves pregnant at a young age. I came into work to find a 20 year old on the table. She had just aborted her five month old baby, and even though she claimed it to be spontaneous, the doctor was not convinced as he was having issues removing the placenta. In the end she confessed that she had taken some herbs, as the man who impregnated her was married, and he did not want the child. She said she was not ready to be a mother. As the doctor was attempting to manually remove the placenta, she reached for my hand (She had no anesthesia.). I was told I could not touch it, as it was covered in blood. I ended up holding her arm, and talking to her. My heart went out for this girl, but it was hard to see how she could abort the beautiful little baby now laying limp next to her. In spite of all of these things, I still love maternity. I cannot help but praise God when I think of how intricate each little baby is. I held onto the little babies whenever I had the chance, and before I leave I plan on taking lots of pictures with the little babies in the maternity ward.

This week I am in theatre. Today I witnessed a caesarean section, and I held the mom’s hand and brushed her head as I watched. I do not want one. Ever. The amount of tugging, and ripping did not look enjoyable. Theatre will be really interesting this week, but I won’t spoil my next blog by telling you about it now. :) 

Today five people from Pioneers came to the hospital. They were all students from Wheaton College, and they are teammates with my friend Janet, a fellow SOS member! It was fun to talk with them, and I was told I will probably see Janet soon too! Gretchen and I gave them a little tour, and they watched surgeries with us. They plan on coming tomorrow, too, so it should be fun. Today was market day, and I am really tired. I was going to tutor tonight, but no one was there so I headed back. Gretchen came back and told me they were coming now, but I think I am going to have to go to bed and come tomorrow night. Life is busy here, but prayers would be that I accomplish what God has in plan for me while I am here, and I continue to push myself out of my comfort zone. I hope you are all doing well, and that you are enjoying time with friends and family this summer.

Abby

 Well, I finally got my pictures to load. I started this process way too long ago. :) #1 A picture of the school children during the ceremony where the books were given to the teachers and students. Originally I was trying to upload a picture that included the village chief. I think I will go and take a very nice picture with the village chief at his house instead.

 #2 Just another day in the kitchen. This picture was taken after I had completed the process of washing the dishes from breakfast and lunch, and all of our produce we had bought at the market in Ejura. Hot and sweaty is a constant state here. :)

 #3 A picture of me counting pills. I do not remember what kind of pills those were anymore, but like I had said earlier it has always been a dream of mine to count pills. Actually this is a staged photo. I am not counting these, but just pretending to for memory's sake. My photo from lab didn't load, so maybe next week? See those syrup bottles in the background? A large bottle of Alvite Syrup fell out of the bottom of the box. (Note this is not something that should happen.) They didn't fire me after this incident, but laughed at me so it is all good.

 The village children on Wednesday morning when we went with Rev. Jerry to do a felt picture story of Moses and the Red Sea. There are a lot of them! Somewhere hiding in this mixture is my dear Mother Theresa. She loves these kids, and she teaches in that classroom on the right, and the kids love her.

 Just another Monday in Ejura. Monday is market day so we travel to Ejura to get a week of supplies. There are too many things here that I could comment on so I will just let you interpret what is going on however you want.

This picture was taken today...June 15! I am holding a very small baby squirrel that the kids gave to Gretchen and I. Except, they aren't all looking in this photo. The squirrel was adorable, but I told the kids that I heard his mommy missed him so hopefully they gave the little squirt back.

Greetings! Sorry this blog is once again overdue. This week has been a very fun week! I have been working the medical laboratory here this week. Before coming here I would have guessed that I would find the laboratory more enjoyable than dispensary, but it is actually just the opposite. However, I still have learned a lot. In the laboratory patients come for us to draw blood samples, test blood sugar, test urine and stool samples, and receive some vaccinations. I have spent time this week pricking fingers to test for malaria—even little babies! I have found that sometimes I don’t prick deep enough to really get enough blood which probably comes from not wanting to make them wail. Sadly, the babies with severe malaria don’t care half the time. I also drew some larger blood samples from the arm using a syringe. These samples can be used to test for sickling (Sickle Cell Anemia is more prevalent in African communities because it helps with resistance to malaria.) . They can also be used to look for protozoans in the blood (which I have seen this week!), and to group the blood and test for STD’s such as syphilis, hepatitis B and C, and HIV. I have had at least one patient who tested positive for HIV. The test involves using serum from the blood, and if someone is found to be positive, then they are sent on for further testing in a larger hospital.  On Tuesday we went to the ward to get a blood sample from a 2 month old baby girl. Her mother sat beside her on her bed crying, and even though I couldn’t  understand what they were saying, I could tell that everyone in the room was yelling at the mother. It sounded like the mother had not brought the child in until the child was severely anemic and pale. Priscilla and I pricked the little baby over twenty times in her fingers, toes, and heel trying to get just four large drops of blood to check for malaria and group her blood.  We finally got enough blood to test her, and she received a blood transfusion. I kept checking her ward throughout the day, and even that night to see if she was still alive. The next morning when I returned to her ward to take samples of more sick kids she was gone. This is not a rare event, but rather a weekly event. These things are rare where I live. If a child dies it is because of an accident, cancer, or genetic abnormality, but not just because the family didn’t bring in a sick child soon enough.  Another exciting thing was seeing strongulitis of the liver. In other words, the stool sample was full of little worms crawling back and forth under the microscope…yuck! The people in the lab were very nice though, and I really have enjoyed their company. They have a wonderful new laboratory room that will soon be complete! This will help them to be more sanitary, and they cannot wait to use their new machines! They do a great job, but because of limitations of supplies and budget, they are unable to have the type of sterilization that would be found in an American hospital laboratory. This was something they knew, but the reality was it just couldn’t be that way. I appreciated their work, and the way they did the best with what they had because I do not think I would be able to be as frugal as they were.

The other highlights of my week included playing volleyball in the red African dirt in the middle of a downpour, and going to the school!! I cannot put into words what it was like to see so many kids from the small village of Kasei. Jerry and Loyce from BASIC ministry partner with the Kasei village to help improve the educations. They have a scholarship program to eligible students which helps them attend the high school in Ejura. This year their first scholarship recipients will finish high school. Some of them will still not receive their diploma because you must pass the national tests in all subjects first. English can be a struggle for these students as they have grown up in homes where their parents do not know English. I think I have mentioned this before, but English isn’t prevalent here. Yes, English is the national language, but like many African countries English is only prominent in the big cities such as Accra and Kumasi. Today Loyce presented new books for the primary and junior high school in Kasei. The village chief, queen mother, and archbishop of Kumasi were present for the ceremony, and I was able to sit right in front next to them! Afterwards, the kids ran up to us, and we shook countless hands. The kids were fighting over the right to touch our white hands—what a strange feeling! Dr. John introduced us as soon to be doctors, and I pray with all of my heart that might come true! I trust that God knows what is best for me though, and I am willing to follow His leading. If I do not get into medical school for fall 2014, then this experience has still solidified to me that the healthcare field is where I want to be. This weekend I will be traveling to Kumasi, and tomorrow I will be attired and in attendance for a Ghanaian funeral. One story as I close up: Yesterday an elderly man was hit and killed in Ejura by a passenger van. Many young men from the city were angry, and they were trying to attack all of the passenger van drivers because they wanted justice. There are even rumors they attacked the policeman. In the end, the passenger driver turned himself in at a different town because he feared his safety in the Ejura Police Station. Also, the Ghana Newspaper Association was at the school today for the ceremony, so maybe you will see a video or article online! It would be something about BASIC ministry and Kasei schools. Hope all is well. I enjoy hearing from you all! Abby

Quick update! I am feeling better. Thank you for your prayers and support, I can only begin to see how much I am learning about myself, God, and cultures. This week is dispensary which means pharmacy!! I have never really thought of being a pharmicist. Some of you might know I really don't believe in taking a lot of pills so I am very slow to take a pill for anything. However, there are times when they are very important. I am able to help fill prescriptions right off of the doctor's notes in a patient's folder. Of course, the pharmacy workers always double check my work before the patient receives the pills. Sometimes when we are less busy, I call the patient to the window, and explain their pills to them. The people here are so kind because often I do a terrible job with their name, and then they still listen to my rusty Twi as I say simple things such as. Bagko anopa, bagko awia, bagko ayunume. (one morning, one afternoon, one evening). However, my counting skills are improving this week in Twi so that is a plus! The people in pharmacy are really a joy to work with. They are very patient with me which I cannot thank them enough for. They also talk about different aspects of Ghanaian and American culture with me, and I love hearing their opinion on American things such as celebrities, the president, and sports. There really isn't a huge love of American football outside of America, but I bet most of you would have trouble remembering that in 2010 Ghana defeated the U.S. in soccer (except I know Kayla would know that if she is reading this. :)) They are pretty proud of this fact, and the fact they beat us once in South America, which I never was aware of until now. Today in dispensary I was able to use one of those pill counting things to fill bags with 30 fersolate pills (given to pregnant women). I have always wanted to do that, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Most days a majority of the pills are p'mol, fersolate, and folic acid for pregnant women or Malaria pills. I have been able to see more antibiotics go out now. This often happens with hernia surgeries as a good preventative measure, and I saw a very minimal amount of antibiotics for a respiratory and one ear infection. I went over to maternity to see a friend, and I was able to hold a one hour old baby and bring him to his mother after she returned to the ward. I know this is a small deal, but I was extremely happy to do this small deed.  A huge dream of mine is to witness some childbirths here, and today I came one step closer. That is all I really have to share. I am going to try and find my laundry. It rained like crazy today, and now Theresa and I are trying to figure out where my clothes went. Don't worry, I am sure they are in a very good location. Then I need to go and make some pizza dough so we can share some pizza with our friends later this week. Yesterday I made guacomole for Charles and Constance who are the ones who make the homemade fufu. They do not have such a thing here, but they said it was good once they got over the fact it was a smashed avocado rather than a nice and firm one. :)
I will say I miss the pool this week. It is supposed to open on Saturday, and I have thought of the possibility of a new pool back when I would come to the pool as a kid. I hope everything is going well, and the facility is able to fulfill its purposes. No one here knows how to swim, which makes sense because there isn't a lot of water besides what pours from the sky.
PS The moon here was very full last night, and I love looking at it as it is the same one back at home.
God is Love,
Abby

 The least gory picture of my knee. Theresa did a great job taking this picture and was very zoomed in which means you can all see how hot and sweaty I am. Proof that I was playing and that it was humid. I didn't play today, but I hope to get back out again next Sunday!

 Note my hesitance to get really close to the monkeys. This was one of my first times, but they were sure friendly. There was a whole crowd, and I have some cool videos that with better internet connection will give a better idea of their friendliness.

 I took a picture of the kids from the Kasei village who were chasing us yelling Brunee!!!! They are adorable, and when we stopped and talked with them they kept following us. The camera made them jump and yell, and then laugh when I would show them the picture afterwards.

 I know it is hard to see, but that blue fogginess is like a valley of trees. I found it beautiful, and I loved that the land was not FLAT! :) My head was glued out the window the entire way to and from the monkey sanctuary.

This little fellow and I were shaking hands. He really let me get a good look at his hands which were all black, but the size of a little babies. Note the slight height difference.

What a busy week! I can hardly believe another week has gone by already. I am very sorry about the lack of communication lately, but I seriously have been busy that I haven’t touched the computer since my last blog entry. To make up for it, I will try and get the computer to allow me to upload a few photos. This week I spent Monday through Wednesday in consulting, which I already spoke of, and then Thursday and Friday I took vitals. I really enjoyed my two days in vitals because I felt like I was doing medicine. J With my CNA training, I learned how to take blood pressure and temperature is pretty self explanatory along with weight. At first, I helped the nurse take temperature, and recorded blood pressure and weights. Pretty soon I was doing more to help out when we were busy, and then when it was slower I spent some time solo. I would call the names, tell them to stand on the scale, and take their blood pressure or temperature if they were under 18 years of age. All in Twi! One aspect that is different is that after calling their name they come to the front of the waiting room for their vitals. The scale is like a bathroom scale, and the thermometer is the typical under the arm one. Except here we have kilograms and Celsius. Children with temperatures are immediately given what is referred to as p’mol either orally or rectally if 5 or under. On Thursday a little girl came in with her mother with a pretty high temperature and looked close to convulsions. I brought her folder and her and her mother straight into the consulting room, and she was admitted with severe malaria. I saw her after my lunch break in the children’s ward with an I.V., but that night at dinner the nurse I was eating with told me she had passed away later that afternoon. It made me more aware of how serious Malaria can be, and a greater realization as to how many children die each year from Malaria. There is talk of a new Malaria vaccine in the making. Even though it is only found to have 50% success rate, they say it might still be used just because that is still 50% less children dying each year from Malaria.

Megan and Larry came Thursday from Roanoke, Virginia. Megan is a first year medical student from Virginia Tech doing some research on Caesarean sections and their prevalence in the hospital here. She is looking into how often they are done, and whether or not there is a difference in rate from America. Here Caesareans are done with local aneshetic or a spinal aenesthesia, but not an epidural. She is looking at whether or not this reduces their rate compared to their commonality in the States. Larry is her research advisor’s husband who comes here with his wife every September and is known by many here. They are leaving tomorrow, but it was nice to talk with them and share some meals. I also enjoyed their gift from Dr. John. (See below.)

Saturday we went to Fiema Monkey Sanctuary by Nkoranza-Kintempo. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget! J We walked through the bush with a tour guide, Christian the driver, Stella and Tena our Ghanaian coworkers, and Gretchen and myself. It felt much like a hike, and I loved the TALL trees like off the Lion King, and I was reminded of third grade learning the different layers of the rainforest. We saw a tree that was kind of hollow all the way up because it was 50% a strangling tree (sorry for the odd explanation here). Gretchen being the adventurous woman she is climbed as high as she could get, but I managed to get ½ up with my fear of heights and the fact that Gretchen was still in the tree. J We then learned how the village was settled in 1827 and a hunter found a Fettish priest in the bush (I think this is an idol.). When he brought the priest back, the monkeys came because they were his children. Some of the villagers worship the monkeys, and are highly respective of the monkeys who come in the village to eat throughout the day. Whatever harm that is done to the monkeys will be reciprocated to the humans. There is also a belief that an elder in the village will die after the monkeys have shrieked for 7 nights in a row. A virgin nun who lived to be over a hundred was spoken to by the monkeys and was always by the fettish priest. When she died she was buried in the monkey cemetery with the other monkeys, who always come to the village to die, and are buried like the humans. All of this was very interesting, and brought a closer understanding of some of the different religious tribal practices as this is a religion for some of the Akkans that are part of the larger Ashanti group. Back to the monkeys…our guide bought some bread in the village, and we fed the bread to the Mona? Monkeys who ate right out of our hands. The Colobus? Monkeys are more shy, and we saw their white tails high up in the trees, but they are afraid of humans. The ?’s refer to the fact that I am not 100% on spelling and the two species could be switched. J I loved feeding the monkeys though, and I think my mom would have loved it. They would nibble on my fingers if I held onto the bread tightly, and I was able to see their little hands—they have fingernails! After our adventure, we ate JIF peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (which Larry and Megan brought from Accra!) and then ate at a hotel restaurant. Gretchen and I had fish, rice, and salad, and were told to finish our plates. I felt extremely full, and didn’t really eat anything after that for the rest of the day. I ate it all, but when I was done with the meat of my fish, the Ghanaians got to work on the head and skin, which I had shied away from. In the end all that was left was the spine, tail and jaw with teeth. Yes, Ghanaians eat the eyes-a man once killed his wife because she wouldn’t share them with him!

Other than that, I haven’t felt the greatest today. This week has been very busy, and I think I am simply exhausted. We went to Lighthouse Chapel International in Ejura for church this morning with Dr. Ponei. It was in English, which was refreshing, but when I stood after the sermon I almost passed out. Needless to say, I have been dizzy ever since, and not hungry. We had fufu for dinner tonight, and I did not pull my weight. Hopefully lots of sleep tonight will put me in better terms. I ask for prayers for health and strength as my stomach has been a little touchy lately forcing me to pile up on antacids, and a peace of mind as I have felt a little more stressed lately. We are very safe here, but there were apparently some robbers two villages down along the highway this afternoon. I feel very thankful and blessed as we have passed through Mampong four times in the past two days and were safe each time. The police went out, so I am pretty sure the whole thing is over by now, but just a prayer for peace of mind would be appreciated. Two other prayers for Ghana would be the Cholera outbreak in Accra (which is no threat to us, and preventable by simply washing hands), and there are elections here this year. We pray for this every morning at devotions just that Ghana would be peaceful throughout election season, and there will be a peaceful handing over of power as this is the president’s last term. Ghana is a very safe, strong nation so please do not fret. J I pray each of you is doing well, and have had a wonderful Memorial Day! Also shout out to my sister, I am proud of her! God is Love, Abby.